On the Murder-class Cruiser.
When the first wave of Blood Angels followed the Captain into the bridge, they witnessed an extremely sinister and unclean scene.
Captain Afiel looked at the spacious, scarlet bridge.
To be precise, it was a slaughterhouse.
The bridge of this evil ship was as blasphemous and abominable as its hideous exterior.
This spacious bridge, which had served since the Great Crusade and could accommodate hundreds of officers and Astartes, had been converted into a blasphemous, bloody ritual site.
The secondary battle room had turned into a bubbling pool of blood.
Various skulls were scattered messily or floating within it, like a pot of stew.
There were skulls of humans, Astartes, xenos, and apostles of the other three Chaos Gods.
These bastards had slaughtered the heroic, unyielding mortal warriors right here, using them as sacrifices to tear open a rift portal to the Abyss Port, setting off today's tragedy.
When the Blood Angels breached the area, a tall Astartes, with skulls impaled on his back and wearing a helmet resembling a ram's skull, was preparing to summon a daemon to descend upon this bridge.
He had executed all the prisoners his subordinates could gather.
This sorcerer, the leader of these raiders.
In Khornate warbands, they are called Lords of Possession.
He was attempting to perform a possession on a sacrifice who had been tortured to the point of unconsciousness.
The body was covered in blasphemous blood-inscriptions and knife marks known as "blessings."
The sorcerer chanted infuriating, evil words, and all the remaining Astartes had gathered around him to guard his safety.
It was hard not to notice something.
There was a Thousand Sons marine pierced by meat hooks and hung on a rack. His bright blue armor was very conspicuous amidst the sea of bright red.
This traitor was motionless, but the blue ghost-fire in his helmet proved he was not dead; it seemed this group of Eight-Stigmata warriors was using him as some kind of psychic medium to open the rift and summon a daemon.
"Fleshless, ashen heretic." The Sanguinary Priest said to the Captain beside him in a tone of contempt.
As a veteran Chapter Chaplain, he had seen these fleshless, ghost-like Thousand Sons traitors before.
"Brother Captain, we must be quick. This heretical traitor wants to summon a daemon here; the sons of Sanguinius must not let them succeed." Chapter Chaplain Voltaire advised Captain Afiel in a chanting tone.
"First squad, flank from the left. Second squad, jump pack strike. Third squad, flanking harassment, take out those fallen Psykers and disrupt their summoning rhythm." The Captain deployed the most suitable combat plan almost immediately.
"And you, Chaplain. Please join me in eliminating that hideous heretic."
"Sons of Sanguinius, rain down the wrath of Sanguinius upon the traitors!" The Sanguinary Priest began to chant, taking the lead in charging according to the Captain's tactical arrangement.
The crozius arcanum he held high burst forth with a golden light, bathing the battle-brothers in it.
This power came from the Librarian brother aboard the Avenging Blade.
He was using the Warp power bestowed upon him by his bloodline to oppose the Lord of Possession from within a ritual chamber filled with psychic equipment, resembling a cathedral hall.
And the Sanguinary Priest was the relay node for his psychic power.
As the radiance fell, the warm psychic power made the sons of Sanguinius feel a bit better in the environment of increasingly high psychic readings.
But they still needed to end the battle quickly, otherwise they would face the danger of half the Second Company being wiped out—if the heretical traitor truly summoned a Greater Daemon of Khorne.
"Live up to the blood of Sanguinius!" The Blood Angels' fighting spirit soared.
They launched an assault on the traitors entrenched on the bridge from the sky and from both flanks, using assault tactics that had been in use since the era of the Ninth Legion.
It was as if the glory of the 30K Golden Age of history had reappeared.
Under the cover of a small squad of gold-helmeted veterans, the Captain and the blood-soaked Sanguinary Priest charged straight into the center of the summoning circle.
As they got closer, that evil energy became more and more obvious.
The sons of Sanguinius had a special sensitivity to psychic power.
A restless agitation surged in the Captain's blood.
The surrounding warriors fought each other, and a group of people guarding the Lord of Possession blocked the path of the Captain and the Chaplain.
The two instantly formed a combat formation, fighting fiercely and methodically.
None of these traitors were opponents who could contend with them.
Facing the Blood Angels Captain and Sanguinary Priest who were about to charge over, steaming with the flames of vengeance.
The Lord of Possession was finally forced to withdraw a portion of his energy to deal with the opponents right in front of him.
The speed of the inscriptions being written in the crimson magic circle slowed down; instead, the Thousand Sons marine pierced by the meat hook suddenly jerked his head up, his eyes bursting with blinding light.
When this ominous light pierced into the air and lowered a curtain, the Captain felt a severe headache.
Various eerie hallucinations began to appear before his eyes.
These hallucinations were none other than the most painful victories of his life.
Every scene before the deaths of the brothers who had served with him and were close to him haunted his mind.
The images were so clear that it was as if he had traveled back to the past, with only him having made it to this day.
"Brother Captain, seal off your emotions! These hallucinations are exploiting your Red Thirst!"
"I know, but it's too hard." The Captain gritted his teeth, resisting this evil energy, and swung his sword forward to kill.
This was practically a special attack against the Second Company; the Blood Angels of the Second Company relied on the Red Thirst to resist the Black Rage, striving diligently to turn their genetic flaws to their advantage.
It was originally a style of maxing out fury to deliver fatal critical hits.
But now, the deeper the Red Thirst, the more severely he was tortured by this mental power.
These enemies were clearly prepared; Apher could be certain that their target was the Second Company and the Avenging Blade battle barge.
[But, why? We just returned from a long-drawn-out crusade... logically, no one should know when or where we would appear.]
"May the Sanguine Blood grant you purity!"
The Chaplain finished reciting an excerpt from the Poem of the Sanguine Blood, using his greatest strength to oppose the evil power.
The golden light and red light were distinct, each forming two zones.
Although they could stand on equal footing, if the Captain wanted to kill that traitor, he had to advance alone into the side shrouded in evil energy.
If he got too close, what would happen?
The Captain was not sure if he would be corrupted by the desire for power due to the fury of the Red Thirst.
Just like the trap at Signus.
That Apothecary Meros, who jumped into the blood pool for Sanguinius, sacrificed himself because of this and became a legendary daemon—the Red Angel.
But regardless of whether this was a trap, for the battle-brothers of the Second Company, the Lord of Possession must die, and a Greater Daemon of Chaos must absolutely not appear here today!
"Chaplain Voltaire, if the time comes when I am no longer myself, please grant me release with your own hands." The Captain left a contingency plan.
[Come, come. Donatos Apher, just like that, step into the embrace of the True Gods.]
The Lord of Possession's face, hidden beneath the ram-horned helmet, went into a crazed ecstasy.
Just as the Captain was enduring the pain of fury with bulging veins, having prepared himself mentally, and was stepping forward to advance into the crimson corner.
Everything suddenly changed.
The bound Thousand Sons marine suddenly moved, slowly looking at the Khornate Lord of Possession.
A sinister smile appeared on the eerie helmet.
On the Incessant.
"Ugh..." Farida suddenly felt a chill.
"What's wrong with you? Do you need to rest?" Horatio saw her suddenly slump down and immediately supported her, asking with concern.
"I'm fine, just don't know why, suddenly..."
Hum!!——
"!" Horatio looked urgently at his right arm.
The iron hand began to vibrate on its own.
'Warning: Detected extremely high corrosive psychic environment nearby, will activate Precognition Shard passive skill Emergency Evasion!'
'Activate: Psychic Synchronization'
'Activate: Precognition Shard'
Horatio:?
[What's going on... how did the skill activate on its own? Emergency Evasion?]
"Ugh!" A strong chill surged along Farida's body into his body.
This was a very unpleasant feeling.
A disturbing, eerie stench wafted through the air.